The Wine Buyer explains the wine ratings you see on the pages of
our online wine shop.

We keep getting questions like Who is Robert Parker? and
What is the Wine Spectator? and What are all those points
and abbreviations I see? So we decided to put together this page to
explain what we show you on many of our wines to help you decide whether you
might like them or not. For every wine we can, we try to find reviews that our
customers can trust from reliable sources. It's important to us that you be as
informed as possible about the wines we have in our shop. It's not always
possible to find a review in these publications because there are so few
publications and so many wines! If we find a review, we put the source and
score right after the name of the wine ( for example WS90 means
Wine Spectator 90 points) and the written review, if any,
below, in an explanatory section. In the sections that follow are explanations
of who The Wine Advocate (aka Robert Parker) is, what are the major wine
rating magazines, and a bit about each of their rating schemes (which are very
similar).

The Wine Advocate
(our WA rating abbreviation) We use ratings from four major sources
and one or two minor ones. First and foremost is The Wine Advocate. Robert
Parker, while going to college, formed a tasting group of students who were
interested in wine. They all started to rate the wines they tasted. That's
when they realized that just because a wine costs alot of money or has a great
reputation is no guarantee that it will be great in a particular vintage
(year). After college, he continued on with his tasting and realized what a
gift he had for analyzing the various flavor components of wine. He has become
the most trusted source of tasting and rating wine the world over. He now
publishes The Wine Advocate which comes out six times a year and contains only
wine ratings and stories and has no advertising (except for his own books and
software). Parkers Rating System is called a 50-100 point quality scale. He
emphasizes that "the numerical ratings are utilized only to enhance and
complement the thorough tasting notes" that he writes for each wine. He also
equates 90-100 to an A given for outstanding effort, 80-89 to a
B given in school for very good (particularly 85-89), 70-79 represents
a C or average mark, and below 70 is a D or F. Here is
his system:

96-100:

An extraordinary wine of profound and complex character

90-95:

An outstanding wine of exceptional complexity and character

80-89:

A barely above averge to very good wine displaying various
degrees of finesse and flavor as well as character with no noticeable flaws

70-79:

An average wine with little distinction except that it is
soundly made

60-69:

A below average wine containing noticeable deficiencies

50-59:

A wine deemed to be unacceptable

The Wine
Spectator (our WS abbreviation) Next to Robert Parker, the next
most trusted source for wine ratings, wine news, restaurant wine list ratings,
wine travel information, etc. is the bi-weekly Wine Spectator. Unlike Parker,
the Wine Spectator is a commercial magazine with advertising. Their editors
palates' are trusted almost as much as Robert Parker, except that you have
ratings from a group of tasters whose opinions can be different from one to
another. But they have separated eight editors geographically so that if you
are looking at Australian wines, for example, the same editor will be tasting
most of the wines. The Wine Spectator has three pieces to their monthly buying
guide: Top Picks of the New Releases, all the ratings in the issue, and the
Best in Market pullout card. The Top Picks of the New Releases are separated
into four sections:

Spectator Selections

are the highest recommendations in each issue.

Highly Recommended

are noteworthy bottlings selected from the higher
scoring wines in the issue.

Cellar Selections

are wines they believe will improve most from
additional bottle age and show the greatest potential as collectables.

Best Buys

are wines of value with solid scores, modest prices,
and wide distribution.

Their 100-Point Scale, like the rest, really only starts at 50 and goes to
100. Here's how they define it:

95-100:

Classic; a great wine

90-94:

Outstanding; a wine of superior character and style

85-89:

Very Good; a wine with special qualities

80-84:

Good; a solid, well-make wine

70-79:

Average; a drinkable wine that may have minor flaws

60-69:

Below average; drinkable but not recommended

50-59:

Poor, undrinkable; not recommended

The Wine
Enthusiast (our WE abbreviation) This is a newer
publication, growing out of The Wine Enthusiast catalog of wine accessories.
Perhaps not as regarded as The Wine Spectator, they nonetheless taste and rate
a large quantity of wines in their monthly issue. This explanation of their
ratings comes from their online site.

98-100:

Classic; The pinnacle of quality

94-97:

Superb; A great achievement

90-93:

Excellent; Highly Recommended

87-89:

Very Good; Often good value; well recommended

83-86:

Good; Suitable for everyday consumption; often good value

80-82:

Acceptable; Can be employed in casual, less-critical
circumstances

In addition to their numeric scale, they also give some special ratings
each issue. These include:

Editors' Choice

are the highest recommendations in each issue.

Cellar Selections

are wines deemed highly collectible and/or requiring
time in a wine cellar to reach their maximum potential.

Best Buys

are wines that offer a high level of quality in
relation to price and are generally cost less than $15.

Stephen
Tanzer (our ST abbreviation)
Stephen Tanzer has served as Senior Editor and wine columnist for Food & Wine
magazine and wine columnist for Forbes. He wrote the 1998 and 1999 editions of
Food & Wine Magazine's Official Wine Guide. Stephen Tanzer's International
Wine Cellar is a critically acclaimed bi-monthly journal read by wine lovers
in 28 countries. This explanation of his ratings comes from his online
site.

95-100:

Extraordinary

90-94:

Outstanding

85-89:

Very Good to Excellent

80-84:

Good

75-79:

Average

70-74:

Below Average

< 70:

Avoid

Wine &
Spirits (our W&S abbreviation) This 18 year old
publication comes out 8 times a year and actually has quite a bit of content
on restaurants and spirits, even though they subtitle the magazine as "The
Practical Guide to Wine". They don't publish a ratings scale per se, but you
can use the other numeric scales as a guide since they also use the "100-point
scale." In each issue they feature a top ten list for one type of wine and
they have a Best Buys section in some issues. They do say that only about 30%
of the wines they actually taste make it into the issue; the others being
deemed unworthy of inclusion.

Connoisseurs'
Guide (our CG abbreviation) Connoisseurs' Guide to
California Wine was started by two passionate collectors of California Wine
back in 1974. Earl Singer and Charles Olken set out to provide a publication
with the kind of depth and focus on California wine that then existed for
French, German and Italian wines. They did so in the belief that there were
lots of people in the world like themselves, people who were avid followers of
California wine and who shared their frustration at the lack of attention and
respect given to California wine by the wine press at the time. In 1982,
Stephen Eliot, then a leading retailer, joined Connoisseurs' Guide as a
staff writer. Later, he was named Associate Editor. Steve is also the Wine
Instructor at the California Culinary Academy. Each monthly issue of
Connoisseurs' Guide contains reviews of hundreds of wines from California and
the Northwest U.S., plus a Centerfold article about special tastings of wines
from around the world and a Best Buys in the Market section.

If you're familiar with Connoisseurs' Guide then you know the
"little puffs" they use to rate their wines. We believe they started
out with just the puffs (actually called stars) but have moved on to include
numeric ratings also. Here's their scale:

THREE STARS:

(95-98 points)

An exceptional wine. Worth a special search of the
market.

TWO STARS:

(91-94 points)

A highly distinctive wine. Likely to be memorable.

ONE STAR:

(87-90 points)

Fine example of a type or style of wine. Without
notable flaws.

They also note that wines not marked with stars are often delightful
wines. You can just go by their rating text in that case.

The Wine
Buyer (our WB abbreviation)
When we can't find a review and get to taste the wine, we include our own reviews.
We strive to supply the best bottles that are offered in the market today. We spend time tasting new wines in able to better serve
you with honest and helpful reviews that will provide you with the best
service when picking out selections.

In conclusion, I think that the reviews from all of these publications can
be relied upon to tell us what those experienced palates think of a particular
wine. You won't always agree with them as we don't! Sometimes we taste
something that we feel just doesn't deserve the high or low rating that they
give it... if we taste something and don't agree we'll tell you about it in
our write-ups. We have to rely on their judgment because we just never get to
taste all those wonderful wines out there. Our job is to bring you those wines
at the best prices we can and that is what we concentrate on most of the time!
If there is additional information you want to know about these ratings or
magazines, please contact us at
Customer Service.